Forrest Gump

Through the spaceship windows they see a group of natives looking at them. When they go outside, a large man who calls himself Big Sam introduces himself. He was a former Yale student and is now a prominent member of the tribe. He says that they are indeed cannibals, and his people wanted to eat Forrest, Sue, and Major Fritch. For now, he says he has stalled them, but if they want to stay alive, they’ll have to stay on the island and help the natives pick and plant cotton. 

They work the cotton fields for months. Big Sam teaches Forrest to play chess, and soon Forrest is beating him every time. Major Fritch begins sleeping with a native man named Gruck, and moves into his hut. Forrest and Sue, the ape, begin to communicate through sign language. Soon, Sue knows enough language to tell Forrest that he was a circus ape before being sold to NASA.

One night, there is a celebration and Forrest notices that the natives are heating a cauldron. He thinks they have finally decided to eat them, and he’s right. He, Major Fritch, and Sue try to escape in a canoe, but they’re quickly caught by Big Sam on the jungle river. Suddenly, a tribe of pygmies attacks. Sam’s natives and Forrest’s trio are quickly caught in a net. Sam tells him that if he plays the harmonica, it might save his life. The king of the pygmies loves American music, Samclaims. The natives drop Sam into a pot and set about cooking his tribe. 

Forrest offers to play the harmonica for the pygmy tribe. They are captivated by the music. While he plays, Forrest looks at Sue and hints that he should grab one of their spears. Sue hits the pygmy king over the head with it and they escape with the pygmies in pursuit. They are soon found by a NASA search party and rescued. However, Major Fritch decides to stay with Gruck, and Sue likes being in the jungle, so he stays as well. Forrest is taken back to Washington DC, where he is honored once again at the White House. He has been in the jungle for nearly four years and doesn’t recognize the current President, although it is implied to be Richard Nixon. Forrest stays in a hotel for a few days, then the government says they will no longer pay for his lodging. Now he’s on his own. 

Forrest can’t find a place to stay. He is walking through a rainstorm looking for a way to get dry when he startles a homeless man lying under a plastic bag on the ground. It’s Dan, the lieutenant he met in Vietnam. Dan’s wife has now left him. He’s thirty, an alcoholic, and a vagrant. His optimism has been replaced by nihilistic bitterness. When Forrest tells him about his adventures, he’s impressed. But when Forrest tells him that all he wants to do is find Jenny, Dan wants to help. He makes some calls and talks to some members of Jenny’s band. No one has seen her in a long time, but there is a rumor that she’s working for a tire company in Indianapolis. They take a long bus ride to visit her. Forrest is nervous the entire way, but he has to see her. When they arrive, he sees her outside eating a sandwich. She knows it’s him, even without looking up. 

Forrest and Jenny have a joyous reunion. She tells him that she tried to get in touch with him, but couldn’t find him. After the spaceship crashed, she assumed he was dead. He and Dan go to a tavern while she finishes her shift. While they’re in the bar, Forrest arm-wrestles a man and beats him, winning five dollars. A couple weeks later, another man comes into the tavern and offers Forrest a job as a professional wrestler. Forrest begins training with him. He’s going to be playing a character called The Dunce. He wears diapers and a black dunce cap. Jenny doesn’t approve, but Forrest doesn’t mind. None of the other characters he’ll be wrestling against are any more dignified. 

Forrest’s first match is against a wrestler called The Turd. Forrest will be paid five hundred dollars to lose. The Turd is very rough with him and Forrest has to restrain himself from fighting back, but he loses and gets paid. Jenny watches from the audience, but she’s obviously embarrassed. Dan negotiates a new deal: from now on, Forrest will win, and he gets at least nine hundred dollars per match. Soon he has become the promotion’s most popular character. Once he has saved five thousand dollars, Dan and Jenny say they have enough money to quit and start the shrimp business, but Forrest is enjoying the fame. Once they have ten thousand dollars, Jenny tells him it’s time to go, and that if he doesn’t leave wrestling, she won’t be able to wait for him forever.